Individuals' and households' climate adaptation and mitigation behaviors: A systematic review

There is increasing recognition that individuals have larger roles to play in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As such, we conduct a systematic literature review to consolidate existing evidence, and examine which factors are most important in driving individuals' and households' climate adaptation and mitigation behaviors in developing countries. A comprehensive literature search yields 58 empirical studies, and 158 usable analyses with which we conduct a vote-counting exercise. We first find evidence of climate inequality as adoption of adaptation behaviors are strongly driven by income. Furthermore, this inequality is likely to exacerbate as most adaptation behaviors (e.g., air-conditioners) emit high levels of GHG. A second major observation is that education and environmental knowledge (rather than income) are more important drivers for climate mitigation behaviors. The two findings mean that in order to reduce climate inequality, policymakers should target and assist vulnerable population according to their ability to adapt, and also implement more intensive educational outreach and information campaigns to encourage individuals and households to adopt GHG mitigation activities.